Saturday, November 10, 2007

It’s been quite a trip for the Mavs so far…off the court. The odyssey began Thursday night after leaving Oakland. When we arrived in Portland in the wee hours of Friday morning, the two buses that normally are there to take the team and traveling party from the airport to the hotel weren’t.

Some sort of computer glitch with the bus company left us stranded on the plane. Plan B: Call taxis. A lot of them. After a considerable wait, it must have been at least half-an-hour for the first taxis to arrive, small groups of three or four people starting piling in cabs. Players went first, followed by the coaches, and then the rest of the staff and traveling party. It took a while to get everyone “home.”

The problems didn’t end once we got to the hotel. A homeless man snuck into the lobby at about 4:20 am Friday and snatched one of the equipment bags from an unlocked storage closet. He made off with the team’s warm-up tops. Luckily, he didn’t get the uniforms or workout gear. The team didn’t get replacements in time for the game, so they opted to wear long shirts over their jerseys.